Iran Says It Is Set for Nuclear Talks, but West Is Skeptical

WASHINGTON—Iran's foreign minister,
Ali Akbar Salehi,
told world leaders on Sunday that Tehran was prepared to resume negotiations aimed at curbing its nuclear program this month in Kazakhstan, potentially ending eight months of stalled international diplomacy.

But U.S. and European Union officials said in interviews following Mr. Salehi's speech in Munich that they were skeptical Tehran would follow through with his pledge, given the nation's recent history on the issue. They also said his government has yet to formally commit to sending a delegation to Astana on Feb. 25.

European Union Foreign Secretary
Catherine Ashton
proposed the date and location to Iran's government in a letter sent last month, but hasn't received a reply, her spokeswoman confirmed late Sunday.

The international diplomatic bloc that Ms. Ashton leads, which comprises the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany, known as P5+1, hasn't held direct, high-level talks with Iran since last June.

"We have proposed concrete dates and venue ever since early December,"
Maja Kocijancic
said. "We hope the negotiating team will also confirm."

Mr. Salehi spoke on Sunday to an annual international security conference in Germany that was addressed a day earlier by both U.S. Vice President
Joe Biden
and Ms. Ashton. During his comments, the Iranian diplomat appeared to confirm that a new round of negotiations between Tehran and the international diplomatic bloc was set.

"I have good news. I heard yesterday that 5+1 or E3+3 will be meeting in Kazakhstan on the 25th of February," Mr. Salehi said. "We have always insisted that you let the negotiations continue until a mutually satisfactory resolution is reached. But then it was not us who stepped back. We are still very hopeful."

U.S. and European officials said Sunday that they were cautiously optimistic that Tehran would formally announce its attendance in Kazakhstan through a letter to Ms. Ashton in the next few days. But there was also skepticism in Washington and Brussels that Iran was committed, or capable, in the coming months to engage in substantive talks aimed at eliminating Tehran's ability to produce nuclear weapons.

Iran is scheduled to hold presidential elections in June, potentially limiting the government's ability to make any concessions on the nuclear front. U.S. and European officials also said there were visible splits inside Iran over the issue of negotiations.

Tehran denies it is seeking atomic weapons and says it is only developing civilian nuclear power.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator,
Saeed Jalili,
is the personal representative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei,
who has consistently voiced an unwillingness to scale back Iran's nuclear program. Mr. Jalili is seen playing a larger role in shaping Tehran's nuclear policy than Mr. Salehi, a U.S.-educated nuclear physicist, or members of Iran's Foreign Ministry.

Since December, U.S. and European officials have intermittently said they believed a new round of talks with Iran was imminent. Tehran, however, has repeatedly pulled back, often quibbling about the location, these officials said. Istanbul was initially discussed as a site, before Tehran raised its preferences for Kazakhstan, Iraq or Egypt.

The U.S. and its allies are seeking to gain Iran's willingness to suspend its production of near weapons-grade nuclear material at its uranium-enrichment sites in return for economic incentives. Talks broke down in June after Tehran demanded the West first repeal some sanctions before it would consider any reduction in its nuclear activities.

Since then, Tehran has steadily advanced its nuclear capabilities, according to the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

In November, the IAEA announced that Iran had more than doubled its capacity to produce nuclear fuel at an underground military facility near the holy city of Qom. Tehran also notified the IAEA last week that it was installing more advanced centrifuge machines at its uranium-enrichment facility in the city of Natanz, potentially providing Iran the ability to triple its nuclear-fuel production at the site.

Speaking in Munich on Saturday, Mr. Biden reiterated Mr. Obama's offer to hold direct talks with Tehran on the nuclear issue if Iranian diplomats showed seriousness through the P5+1 process. The U.S. and EU have implemented progressively tougher economic sanctions on Iran in recent months, including an embargo on Tehran's oil exports, which Washington and Brussels believe are increasingly draining the government's finances.

"We have also made clear that Iran's leaders need not sentence their people to economic deprivation and international isolation," Mr. Biden said. "There is still space for diplomacy backed by pressure to succeed. The ball is in the government of Iran's court."

Still, some American allies in Europe and the Middle East worry that the U.S.'s and the West's message to Iran has been muddled since Mr. Obama's re-election in November.

The administration's new secretary of state, former Massachusetts senator,
John Kerry,
is seen as less hawkish on Iran than his predecessor, Hillary Clinton. The White House's nominee to become the next secretary of defense, Chuck Hagel, meanwhile, confused lawmakers in testimony last week by saying he would work to implement a strategy of "containing" Iran's nuclear program if he is confirmed for the Pentagon post.

Mr. Hagel and senior U.S. administration officials quickly clarified that President Obama's policy was to deny Iran nuclear weapons, rather than contain Tehran following their acquisition. But these allied diplomats worry that Iran might already be emboldened and discounting the possibility of an American military strike during Mr. Obama's second term.

Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu
warned the international community last September that it needed to be ready to strike Iran's nuclear installations by next summer if diplomacy doesn't progress. By this time, he said, Tehran will have amassed enough fissile material to quickly assemble one or more atomic weapons.

A narrow re-election victory by Mr. Netanyahu last month in Israel, though, is seen by Mideast analysts as lessening his ability to unilaterally launch an attack on Iran.

Mr. Biden worked in Munich to minimize any damage done by Mr. Hagel's comments and to emphasize Mr. Obama's position that he will use all means, including possibly military force, to deny Iran the bomb.

"As President Obama has made clear to Iranian leaders, our policy isn't containment – it is not containment," he said. "It is to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon."

There was growing frustration in Brussels about the lack of response from Tehran on the proposed new meeting. One senior EU official said that the P5+1 had been keen in late January to present a "refreshed offer" to persuade Iran to scale back its nuclear activities, but hadn't been able to.

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While no high-level P5+1 talks have taken place with Iran since June, there have been a number of EU-led contacts since then. Ms. Ashton and Mr. Jalili met in Istanbul last September and technical experts from the P5+1 met with their Iranian counterparts last summer.

While EU officials have said those contacts have been useful – giving them a greater sense of Iran's activities – they have said repeatedly that no breakthrough can come outside formal P5+1 negotiations.

Senior EU diplomats familiar with the talks have said that it remains unclear whether Iran is truly interested in a compromise, the line in Brussels has softened since talks resumed in April 2012.

At that time, Ms. Ashton insisted there would be no talks for the sake of talks and said Iran must make the first move to build confidence. However, EU officials have hinted they are ready to make gestures at the same time as Tehran to build a momentum behind talks, although there has been no suggestion that the EU would water down a full oil embargo it imposed on Tehran July 1.

On Saturday, speaking at the Munich security conference, Ms. Ashton also seemed keen to leave aside any threat of walking away from the diplomatic process.

"The purpose that we have set ourselves is to persuade Iran that we mean to have confidence in the peaceful nature of their nuclear program," she said. "We shall never cease to strive to find ways…to have that diplomatic solution and we are very much engaged right now in trying to move forward on this."

—Laurence Norman in Brussels and William Boston in Munich contributed to this article.

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